


No Better Musician Than the Wren

by Blink23



Series: So This is a Thing, Then? [5]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Coming Out, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-02-02 21:01:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12734232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blink23/pseuds/Blink23
Summary: He had thought for a second about telling him he loved him then, just to see if he could make him smile, but his entire body hurt and he couldn’t talk and even to his own ears it felt like a goodbye. The last thing he needed was to be a Lifetime movie cliché, the closet case jock telling his boyfriend he loved him before dying in his arms.





	No Better Musician Than the Wren

**Author's Note:**

> Titles continue to be nonsensical Shakespeare quotes. I continue to be horrible at keeping a normal posting schedule.

Moose's parents are there the first time he wakes up, his Dad tearful and Mom borderline hysterical as they tell him all about how worried they were and how much they love him and how bad his wounds are. He lasts ten minutes before he can't deal and tells them he's tired, and even then it's a struggle to get his mom out of his room. Marsha has to force her out, wincing apologetically at him.

He wants Kevin.

He knows ultimately that it’s stupid to want Kevin over his own parents, but all he can think about is when he opened his eyes and found Kevin standing there, white as a sheet and trying to talk to him over Midge’s screaming. He had thought for a second about telling him he loved him then, just to see if he could make him smile, but his entire body hurt and he couldn’t talk and even to his own ears it felt like a goodbye. The last thing he needed was to be a Lifetime movie cliché, the closet case jock telling his boyfriend he loved him before dying in his arms.

So he calls the nurse and asks for his phone. He writes and erases multiple texts to Kevin, unsure how to say what he needs to say, until finally he gets frustrated enough to just send what first pops into his head.

 

_I’m awake. Did I miss 1st period?_

Kevin doesn’t respond for close to thirty minutes.

**That’s a terrible joke, even for you.**

**Everything’s alright though?**

Moose snorts in response.

_I’m not dead, if that that’s what you mean._

The next message is there in seconds.

**Don’t**

**Just fucking dont please, I can’t rn**

Moose winces, feeling like a dick.

_Sorry._

**It’s fine.**

He doesn’t get anything after that. He goes back to writing and rewriting texts but never sends them. Finally he just drops his phone and lies back against the pillows, feeling awkward and out of it.

He really, really wants Kevin.

 

He falls asleep shortly after thanks to the morphine and wakes up a few hours later to Kevin reading some impossibly brick-like book. He frowns at him, knowing he wasn't sleeping that long and that school isn't out yet.

“What are you doing here?”

“Skipped after lunch. I don’t think my dad will care.”

He sounds cross with him, and Moose winces.

"...You aren't mad I was with Midge are you? Because I promise she just wanted-"

Kevin looks up at him like he’s grown three heads.

"No, I get that she just wanted to talk about things. She explained after when we were waiting with the cops that she knew, since Reggie opened his big mouth about us. She also told me that you dove on top of her like the giant idiot you are."

“I didn’t even think, I just-”

“I know,” Kevin’s smiling, so that’s something, “You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”

They both go quiet, just watching each other. There’s something off about him, Moose realizes; he looks tired, but not in a normal way, not like he just hasn’t been sleeping. He looks wrung out.

"Are you okay?"

“I’m not the one-”

“Kevin,” Moose cut him off, raising his eyebrows. Moose knows that Kevin is far too comfortable bottling things up to ever really think of himself first in situations like this, and will only remedy it if he's called out on it.

"I-" Kevin pauses, biting his lip, "I'm honestly not sure how to answer that. Between my ex-boyfriend tipping me off about a snuff film made of a classmate and one of my friend's dads and my boyfriend being shot for apparently no reason, 'okay' and 'normal' are probably two things I'm not really sure how to even register today."

“You look exhausted,” Moose admits.

“I just need an actual full nights rest and I’ll be fine.”

“Try again dude. I’ve seen you tired, Kev. This isn’t just you tired.”

Kevin looks down at the book in his hands before dropping it down on the table beside his bed. It’s _Les Miserables_ , because of course it is, of course he would read the book when he could just watch the movie.

“I had to put my hands over bullet holes in your body. I don’t-” He cuts himself off, clenching his jaw and looking anywhere but Moose, “I don’t exactly know how to not have fucking nightmares about something like that.”

“Babe-”

“I’ll be fine, okay? Don’t worry about it. You being awake is going to make it ten times easier, you know? Last night they wouldn’t tell me anything, or anything to dad, even, outside of you being in surgery and then out. I had a full blown freakout and _Archie_ had to comfort me. I love the guy, but it wasn’t that calming to hear ‘don’t worry bro, no one will think you were trying to do anything creepy in those woods.’”

Moose winces, “really?”

"Reggie had enough sense to get him away from me, thankfully, because I was so close to losing it on him. Apparently running in the woods while gay and publicly unattached is code for ‘I was cruising for dick’ for the most oblivious of teenage boys, and the thought of cheating on you when I was sure you were going to die hit a nerve,” Kevin sighs, "He doesn't know, though. Or if he does, Ronnie or someone told him today. Your parents were around, and the few people who know were smart enough to not want to tell him then incase they overheard."

“What were you doing in the woods, anyway?" Moose asks, desperate to change the subject from anything but his parents, "Cross country doesn’t start for like, months. You should be being lazy until then.”

Kevin’s cheeks go pink, “So... it's kind of stupid, bit I’m maybe thinking about joining the wrestling team?”

“...Wrestling? Really?”

Kevin frowns, “What?”

“I mean,” Moose gestures to him awkwardly with a hand, making him laugh, “Track and cross country, sure. Swimming, yes, totally, obviously-”

“You're just waiting to see me in a speedo when we’re in season,” He teases, and Moose ignores him.

“-But the wrestling team?”

“I kinda want to pick up another winter sport. You like rolling around with me while naked, I figured we’d try it clothed.” He breaks off the last word with a yawn.

“Come here, then,” Moose makes grabby hands at him, until Kevin rolls his eyes and stands up, “Come lie down with me.”

“Won’t I…?”

“Nah, just avoid my chest. Head on my shoulder, yeah?”

Kevin does what he’s told, resting his head on Moose’s shoulder as Moose puts his arm around his. it’s not the most comfortable position, but it’s better than nothing. Kevin takes his other hand and brings it across his stomach to rest on his waist, and Moose can feel his entire body relax.

“I love you, you know,” Moose admits, and Kevin goes rigid against him again, “And I’m not just saying that because this happened. I actually have been thinking I might for awhile, but-”

“Marmaduke, shut up, please,” Kevin sighs, reaching up to press his hand to Moose's lips, “I can’t believe I’m in love with a guy named Marmaduke. What the hell.”

Moose's heart does absolutely not stutter in his chest when Kevin says he loves him, no matter what his heart rate monitor does.

“If it makes you feel better my parents thought about naming me Boris after my grandfather.”

“It doesn’t. At all.”

"Yeah,” Moose admits, smiling as he presses his cheek to Kevin’s hair and closes his eyes, “Me neither.”

 

Moose jolts awake, feeling like something’s off. Kevin’s still asleep on him, his head slipping down to his chest, and Moose is surprisingly without pain from him lying like that. Kevin had drifted off almost immediately, but Moose had stayed awake, so he's unsurprised to see it's dark outside his window. The room has the harsh overhead lights on now, making the bags under Kevin's eyes more obvious, and Moose bends down to kiss the top of his head in sympathy when he see them. It’s then that he notices they’re not alone.

His mother is standing near the door.

“I brought you dinner,” She says, raising her arm to show him the takeaway bag from Pop’s, and Moose can’t help but wince at her tone, “I ran into his father when I was there waiting and heard he was here, so got him something too. I thought how nice it was for him to keep you company-”

“Mom-”

“He’s been doing that a lot though, hasn’t he?” Her voice is like ice, and Moose instinctively turns Kevin into his chest a little more to shield him, making him whine but not wake up, “Tutoring you, hanging around at school, going to your games with all your friends-”

“Mom-”

“No,” She looks between the two of them, and something unpleasant curls in Moose’s gut, “Wake him up. He needs to leave, now.”

“He doesn’t, Mom."

"That wasn't a request-"

"He’s fine where he is.”

“If your father saw- If one of these nurses or doctors decided to gossip-”

“At this point I don’t really give a shit, Mom.”

“You really don’t care if I see this,” She gestures at the two of them, “If I see the- the- _mess_ he’s tricked you into, what this will do to your reputation if it gets out-”

“I don’t care,” She just scoffs, and Moose feels his blood boil, “I just got shot, do you really think some homophobe finding out I have a boyfriend is gonna bother me? Do you really think most of our friends haven’t figured it out by now anyway? Reggie called him the little woman in front of Cheryl a few days a go and her only response was to roll her eyes. Dilton makes me put away my phone whenever we’re together and even though he hasn’t said it, I know it’s because he knows I’ll text him. _Marsha's_ been covering for me when his dad's pulling a double and I spend the night at his. No one cares except you and dad.”

“And your mother doesn’t matter?”

“No,” He says, and is more than a little surprised he means it, “I love him, and he loves me. If you’re going to be this way, then no, it doesn’t at all.”

If he’s surprised, his mother looks stunned. She opens her mouth and closes it a few times, like she’s unsure how to respond, before turning on heel and storming out, slamming the door in her wake.

Kevin jolts awake at the sound, rubbing his eyes and frowning.

“What was that?” He asks, hoarse from sleep.

“Nothing.”

He looks up at Moose, his lips pursed in sleepy confusion, and Moose can’t help but lean down and smack a kiss to his mouth. He’s only human.

“Did someone walk in? Because if one of the football team had some stupid shit to say about you not being a ‘real man’ or whatever idiots are spouting off now-”

“I promise it’s nothing too important, okay?” Moose shakes his head, “It can wait.”

“Well, let me be the first to say that whatever that was, I love you and think you're amazing, and clearly my opinion is the only one that matters.”

Moose runs his fingers through his hair, pushing it away from his forehead to press a kiss there, “I love you too, babe.”

Kevin smiles like Moose hung the stars and the moon, and he knows that everything will be okay.


End file.
